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Health & Fitness

Butler County Wingfest 2012

When in doubt, wing it!

Buffalo wings, wing dings, full wings, boneless wings, whatever you want to call them, they are still a great party pleaser and no matter what seasoning they have on them, they are still wings! 

Because of the mess caused by eating Buffalo wings or any other kind of wings, it is now common for restaurants to serve boneless wings that can be eaten with a fork.

For some reason, this just doesn't have the the same effect as getting sauce all over your face, under your fingernails, or sauce dripping down your chin.

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The Second Annual Wingfest was held at the Days Inn on Route 8 South of Butler, just a few weeks ago. 

This being my first time, I had no idea what to expect. I thought maybe six to 10 restaurants, bars, various other eateries serving their style of wings. 

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Little did I know there would be 20 different establishments set up under tents and inside the Days Inn. The participants were cooking their wings outside on their grills or in their deep fryers. 

Business was so brisk that at some of the booths people were waiting for the next batch of wings to come from the cooking area.

There were also 10 different beer companies represented. They were giving samples of their brews, from A-Y...Sam Adams to Yuenglings. 

Not to be undone by the brews being sampled, there were also representatives from Pinnacle serving various samples of vodka, Smirnoff, Jose Cuervo and Absolut giving samples of their products as well.

For the second year in a row,  Sports and Spirits from Main Street, Evans City won the Overall Best Wings, with Beacon Hotel and Monroe Hotel coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively. 

In the Most Creative Wings division, Sports and Spirits also got the first place trophy with the Beacon Hotel and H.T.'s Spillway coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

In the final category, Hottest Wings, the Beacon Hotel took first place with Sports and Spirits coming in second and Monroe Hotel coming in third.

Deb and Ray Collins are the owners of Sports and Spirits and bought the bar/restaurant from Tom and Ginny Lang in 2000. Deb had worked for the Langs for a while and when the well established place went up for sale, she and Ray decided to take a chance. 

Ray had lost his job when the Paragon-Tyco diaper factory moved from Harmony. He wasn't having any luck finding another job so he decided to dedicate his time to helping Deb run the business. 

And dedicated they are to making it a great place to eat.  Deb makes all the soup from scratch and there are some very interesting items on the menu, mostly created by Deb.

Tuesday, they offer their specials on wings. If you'd like to stop in and try the prize winning wings, and want a hint as to what's really good, mine happens to be the Everything Wing.  It's a bit on the hot side, not too hot but very tasty! 

This was the prize winning flavor at the Wingfest. 

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